Wine Tasting: Petite Sirah

It has been eight years since our last Petite Sirah tasting (and nearly no overlap in producers!). It's still a big, teeth staining, tongue empurpling wine. My favorite food pairing is pizza, which is why we had two pies from Little Star.

Petite Sirah is a uniquely Californian varietal (although it began as Durif in France, today nearly everything called Petite Sirah is planted in California). Almost all of it is used as a blending grape in Zinfandel, and this tasting was a good education on why: lots of tannin, lots of structure, but relatively little mid-palate body. It's like the photo negative of a Zinfandel, which bring the dark fruit and rich body, but often lacks structure and tannins.

And because so little is made, there isn't a clear target for wine makers to aim at, so there's a pretty wide variety of styles, which was also demonstrated in this line-up. My favorites in bold.

1. 2012 Spellbound Petite Sirah $11: ok, so this is the exception to what I said about "little being made". Over 21,000 cases of this, made from Lodi and Central Valley fruit. Easy drinking, approachable, with more fruit than most of the others. Great value at the price, but a bit too simple for me. 
2. 2008 Christopher Creek Russian River Valley Reserve Petite Sirah $18: a small, Healdsburg based producer, I discovered their Petite Sirah at a regional wine tasting event. Apparently, they are well known for their Petite Sirah's, claiming to have won more than 45 medals for it. Very nice wine, in the lighter style, good value. 
3. 2013 Toulouse Redwood Valley Thompson Vineyard Petite Sirah, ~$35?: This one I picked up at the winery in Anderson Valley. They are best known for their (excellent) pinot noirs, but I thought this was a very distinctive petite sirah (made in tiny quantities, of course). Described by Pantera as "grenache cola," it was lighter and more fruit forward than the rest. I liked it, but many others did not. 
4. 1998 Turley Hayne Vineyard Napa Valley Petite Sirah $70: probably among the most high-end of all Petites, made by a legendary Zin producer. After 17 years, this was still great, with good structure, elegance, and a fantastic nose. In Pantera's words, "in a blind tasting, I would have guessed something high class from Italy." But hard to justify at the price. 14.5% alcohol, 325 cases made. 
5. 2010 C Beck Napa Valley Petite Sirah $28 (on sale from $38): probably my favorite for value, this was sophisticated, smooth, had more body and midpalate than most in the line up. 
6. 2015 Ridge Lytton Estate Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah $30: Ridge, a top-flight Zin producer, makes small quantities of this petite (which includes 7% Zin) when they have excess after blending their Zins. This vintage showed well, all about restraint and structure. Probably the most sophisticated of the line-up after the Turley, likely to age well. While I really liked it, I thought it was edged by the Beck at the same price point. 13.9% alcohol.
7. 2008 Jessup Cellars Estate Grown Yolo County Petite Sirah $50: thanks to Steven for bringing this one. I realize that I've been tasting at their tasting room, which is just down the street from the French Laundry in Yountville. This showed really well, with more body and fruit than most others in the line up. Tough to justify the price, especially since the Turley is about the same on release.
8. 2009 Carlisle Dry Creek Valley Petite Sirah $40: 100% petite sirah (90% Del Carlo Ranch, 10% Teldeschi Ranch), 15.2% alcohol, 47 cases made. This was the monster of the evening, and kept getting better as the evening progressed. After 6 years, this still felt young, and probably would have gotten even better the next day. While it was ungainly right after opening, it fell into a good balance after a few hours and a pass through the aerator.